Winter 2009

Gallipoli: the August Offensive

The events between the 1915 Gallipoli landings and the final evacuation have been largely overlooked. This issue sets out to redress this imbalance.

• A chain of disasters by Peter Burness.  
  The battle at Lone Pine was only part of a series of attacks in August 1915.
• The August offensive at ANZAC by Robin Prior.  
  A re-examination of the strategy behind these famous battles.
• Bloody Ridge: the assault on Lone Pine by Ashley Ekins.  
  Questions remain over whether the seizing of Lone Pine was a tragic miscalculation.
• Chunuk Bair: A New Zealand epic by Ian McGibbon.  
  The New Zealanders’ assault on Chunuk Bair was not a lost opportunity.
• Gallipoli revisited: a journey to the battlefields, 1919 by Janda Gooding.  
  When the war was over, Charles Bean’s major work was just beginning.
• Nolan: the first great drama by Lola Watkins.  
  A little-known series of paintings on the Gallipoli campaign was inspired by the story of ancient Greek heroes.
• A quiet hero by Peter Burness.  
  Already a hero of the Antarctic, a gifted man’s life was wasted at Gallipoli.
• The Agent Orange story is not over by Graham Walker.  
  Sceptics should not be allowed the last word on the medical problems of Vietnam veterans.
• Not all heroes by Michael Hammerston.  
  Determined to be a part of the Great War, Trooper Britten of the 8th Light Horse Regiment had a brief but troubled life of military indiscipline.
• The spirit of the bayonet by Aaron Pegram.  
  An outdated weapon still played an important psychological role during the First World War.
• Out of the line of fire by Deborah Beck.  
  Some of our best-known artists took part in a unique training scheme after the Second World War.
• An Australian ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ by Stuart Braga.  
  A little-known group of Chinese spies, organised and led by an Australian, operated behind Japanese lines in occupied China during the Second World War.
• Shooting gallery: G-George over Germany.  
  Letters from Adrian Marks, a crew member on a Lancaster bomber, tell of the drama of bombing raids over Germany.
• Plus regular features including Reflections, Mail Call and Book Reviews